Cee-Lo Defends Himself Against Homophobe Accusation

June 18, 2011 16:12:38 GMT

Although he has removed a tweet which people deemed offensive for gays, Cee-Lo refused to apologize for speaking his mind.

Photo credit: /WENN

"The Voice" judge Cee-Lo is the latest celebrity finding himself in hot water through his tweet. He has deleted a tweet which sounded homophobic after realizing that his purpose of "good fun" was not taken so well.

Music editor Andrea Swensson gave a negative review of his Thursday, June 16 performance with Rihanna at the Target Center in Minneapolis. He tweeted to Swensson, "I respect your criticism, but be fair! People enjoyed last night! I'm guessing you're gay? And my masculinity offended you? Well f*** you!"

Cee-Lo defended himself, telling Us Weekly "She was very critical of me. At the time I didn't even know what gender the person was. I was being a little outspoken that night, a little outrageous. I always expect people to assume that everything I do is part of my character and sense of humor. I assumed that whoever it was would assume it was all in good fun. It wasn't taken so well, apparently."

He also explained why he's not a homophobe. "I most certainly am not harboring any sort of negative feeling toward the gay community. I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences," he said. "I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that. Two of the remaining members that I have on my team on The Voice are proud and outspokenly gay. We just did a team performance of 'Everyday People,' and I picked that song for us to do specifically to highlight how we can get along even though we're so different."

Although the tweet was erased, Cee-Lo insisted on not apologizing for speaking his mind and defending his performance. "If I could take it all back, I would. I was not being serious," he said. "I just wanted to defend our performance. It was only our third show with a whole new crew and we were all really proud about the progress that we had made."